[B]eyond some of her work and her unforgettable image — dark-haired, piercing-eyed, flower-crowned — I didn’t know enough about the Mexican artist and icon Frida Kahlo until the 2002 biopic “Frida,†starring Salma Sayek, in a stirring performance examining her life. That movie, for me, ignited an admiration for the […]
[I] have always been able to make sense out of things (somewhat) by writing about them. Even still, lately, I have had trouble writing. It made no sense and yet perfect sense that on a rainy November evening, while I received the news of a loss of life as close […]
[I] know that I’m not the only one who associates doughnuts with Halloween, although I suppose I could associate doughnuts with anything, given a chance. Sunset magazine also pondered the connection between the traditionally fried treat and our favorite fall holiday. In an online article, Sunset reminisced on issues of […]
[R]ecipes can come from surprising sources. The backs of boxes or packages, coupon inserts, obscure Internet sites and offbeat cookbooks. If you had told me even a year ago that, upon seeing a copy of “The Disney Princess Cookbook,†(2013) I had gotten for my nieces that I would have […]
[I]’ve long been obsessed with cream puffs. I learned to make them as a child, watching my mother and then whipping them up myself. It’s a strange process, puff-making, strange in its doing and even stranger in its simplicity. I continue to be baffled that the same ingredients, cooked in […]
[I]’ve eaten a lot of good garlic bread, even making some myself (often an herb-infused-in-olive oil version), but I had not eaten GREAT garlic bread until I sat down at the table of Liboria Salerno (for more about her, please see blog entry, “Presenting Pavlova to a ballerina†of 6/16). […]
[I] believe in good recipes, ,those tried-and-true reliables we turn to when we want something we know we can count on. I have a few of these now in the cornbread realm, but, I’ll be honest, when it comes to cornbread, I’m always open to a new variation or version. […]
[I] had not considered the obvious parallels of birds and bread and lightness and flight until I made a bird out of bread recently. I had no choice but to make a bird out of bread recently when, in search of an annual Easter bread, I landed on a creature […]
[I]’m not sure where flaxseeds currently sit among the healthy food trend “it girls.†For awhile, it was nearly insisted upon to put flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, flaxseed meal or some other interpretation in nearly everything, from cereals to smoothies to breads. I believe now that chia seeds are claiming more […]
[I]’ve been thinking a lot about stars lately, in part, because of the season, but even earlier in the year than that because I noticed a very bright star in the sky that I’ve come to look for every morning. Sometimes this star is companioned by a crisp slice of […]